Memorial Tour
by Jexo
Summary: Life and death have always been two sides of the same coin. Skylar, a once promising trainer who ended up quitting the Gym Challenge, loses her best friend and decides that the best way to honor his memory and move past it is to embark on a new journey. However, things are complicated when she finds that her friend can't move on.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: There isn't a ghost of a chance that I own this.**

**XX**

This is a story of adventure. A tale filled with redemption. One that involves me—a completely average brown-haired boy—and her, Skylar. The most amazing person I'd ever met in the entirety of my life, someone who could turn even the most ordinary thing into something spectacular.

Essentially, my complete opposite.

Becoming trainers at the same time we each ended up dropping out of the Gym Challenge for different reasons. I won't lie and say that we had perfect runs with it. In fact, mine had been a total disaster. I had thought that being the patient, careful type would play strongly to the tasks of a trainer but even an infinite amount of patience couldn't help me being untalented.

Since I lived in the Kanto Region I had started out with a Bulbasaur. Due to my lack of ability, I hadn't managed to evolve my partner further than its middle evolution. It is something I kind've regret. Though, honestly, I regret most of my initial journey.

I definitely let my team down.

Let myself down.

I hadn't even gotten past the second gym despite my partners advantage against Misty's water-types. That's not to say that I didn't still travel around a bit, but when I couldn't win the important battles it all felt so hollow. Almost as if I was running away.

I don't know what it was that made Skylar quit, but I do know that she had gotten much further than me. The little Squirtle that had started so timid that it barely left its shell had become a powerhouse as a Blastoise. It and every other member of her team seemed like a champion-level fighter from my perspective. It made me curious about the whole situation.

I mean, why wouldn't it? She was the toughest person I knew so finding out what had beaten her was at the top of my list. After all, she was the type that if she didn't get it the first time would keep trying until she did. Completely unyielding in almost every way.

The type that wouldn't shed a tear even if she lost her best friend.

An amazing person who even after such a devastating loss I could still find at the desk in her room, diligently at work on a scrapbook with old pictures as her only company. All of which featured a younger picture of her posed with a young brown-haired boy.

It made me nostalgic as I spied them, raising my hand to her window to get attention as I had so many times before.

"Knock, knock. You there?"

Her scream was deafening, even by the standards that I'd caught her off-guard. Everything she did truly was to the extreme, which is why she was perfect to me. And why she was the only one qualified to be the center of our tale of life and death.

That and—

"Hahahahahahaha!"

—Because my story ended a while ago.

* * *

Authors Notes: I finally decided to take the plunge and put out something new. No worries, the others are still being worked on, but the itch to get this one out once some of these ideas struck me were becoming distracting. Anyway, these stories I have planned out so far are going to be short and sweet pieces so this shouldn't be too many chapters.

That said, I do have one in the pipeline that would be the longest one yet. Way longer than the World of Pokemon would be. That one is the only long one I have planned so far, but yeah I've gotten this one started and I feel pretty strongly about it. It's not set in stone but I'm thinking that this one will only be about ten chapters or so.

Read, review, enjoy! Until next time, later!


	2. Our Stubborn Princess

**Disclaimer: There isn't a ghost of a chance that I own any of this.**

**XX**

"You shouldn't be here!"

"What do you mean?" I checked myself over. "It seems like I'm here. I mean, you can see me, can't you? I'd hate to think its all been coincidental and that you still couldn't see me."

Skylar had been quick to open the window after recovering from her shock. Her face a bright red as tears gathered in the corner of her eyes without falling. She had always been the type that would accept reality so I figured it would be easier to bring her around to the fact that I had returned. Even when her first action after opening the window had been to smack me—and her hand phased right through, she didn't believe it.

She recoiled in surprise first, then yelled out of her bedroom door to her parents that her scream was nothing to worry about. Then, while breathing a sigh of relief, she let me in.

Beginning her interrogation.

"You know what I meant!"

Her blue eyes were glazed in a familiar fury as she absently messed with her long raven hair. Even as a borderline mess, plunged in the depths of grief, she was putting on a brave face and trying to figure things out rationally. She was certainly amazing.

"If you mean something you should just say that!"

"You should be able to infer what I mean by what is said! How do you not understand that yet?!"

"I guess you just need to be more careful with the things you say," I said with a shrug.

It was just like things used to be.

Almost.

"Sometimes you really piss me off—"

She had been so caught up in the familiarity of the argument that she almost slipped up and said my name, but she stopped herself. The sad look that had decorated her face when she looked at the scrapbook forgotten on her desk returned, making me feel especially guilty as the cause.

"I won't say that name," she grumbled. "You're not really here, so I won't."

"Yeah. . ."

"My friend killed himself. You're just an illusion because I'm stressed out and haven't been sleeping or something. Pokemon die and sometimes become ghost-types, people die and are thought to become yamask, but never has someone died and come back as an actual ghost."

"As I said it sure feels like I'm here."

She didn't answer. Instead, she sat down at her desk and returned to working on whatever it was she had been doing before I arrived, ignoring all my attempts to get her attention. I had been annoyingly tapping her shoulder when I caught a glimpse of what she had been doing—they were plans.

Plans for a journey.

I couldn't get a good view so I couldn't see all the specifics of what she'd written down. The only thing I could tell was that nearly half the page had been decorated with her sloppy scribbles. Since she was busy ignoring me, I tried to figure out what it said but she only grew annoyed with my prying, shielding it from view.

"Hey—"

"—Skylar it's time for dinner!"

Her mother had opened the door and stepped into the room. Her blue eyes giving off the same focused stare as her daughter's that said she wouldn't go away simply because Skylar wasn't hungry.

"You skipped dinner last night, too. You're eating, even if you don't want to!"

"You've gotta eat," I added.

"Stop talking!"

Skylar spewed the words like a volcano erupting. Her mother was surprised at first, I actually backed away expecting her to say something back when instead of apologizing Skylar just looked away, but she only sighed.

"You've gotta take better care of yourself. Whatever you're doing can wait until you've eaten," she said, her expression softening. "I know you miss him, we all do. However, he isn't coming back."

"Apparently, he did," Skylar muttered.

_So you can't see him_—I interpreted from the way her face was scrunched up.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," she replied, standing up. "I'm coming."

Her mother appeared satisfied with her victory and led her daughter out of the room. Skylar flashing me a deadly glare as she left, leaving me alone with her notes. Sitting down at her desk I deciphered the first item on the agenda that she had produced.

_Find homes for his pokemon_.

Wouldn't they be left with my parents? Maybe even the Professor's lab? I had thought they were already taken care of so I hadn't thought about it much, but all it took was a quick search of her desk to find the four pokeballs that contained the team I had trained. The four creatures who I failed.

I instinctively reached for them, but my hand phased through it. Somewhat depressed, I collapsed into the chair with no option but to just stare at the capsules my pokemon were in, unable to see them. Sighing, I absently returned my attention to the paper on her desk and read the rest of the list. To the typical trainer they were standard things to strive for, but they weren't exactly things I would have expected from her.

"Getting out of her comfort zone, maybe?" I theorized.

Geez, what am I going to do?

I had been distracted with my thoughts that I hadn't heard Skylar come back into the room, a plate of half eaten food in her hand. "I figured you'd probably find them by now," she said.

"Yeah, I did. . ."

I almost wish I hadn't.

"They were going to go to your parents who were going to give them to the Professor, so instead I opted to take them. They deserve to be where they'll be happiest so I want to find that for them," she explained between bites of a burger that I couldn't keep my eyes off. More from the memory of food than actual hunger—I haven't felt the need for food or drink since I arrived at her house.

A true ghost.

Though, even ghost-types can eat if they wanted.

Wait a second—"You're talking to me! You believe I'm really here?!"

"Don't jump the gun. I know that my friend is dead and gone," she said with an intense glare. "Stress or whatever else that you are, I figure I can at least bounce ideas off of you. Maybe the things you say will give me ideas of what my real friend would have wanted."

I grumbled. "You're as stubborn as ever, I see."

She gave a small smile, but in that instance I saw heaven. I saw every good memory of my life played before me all at once that held her at their center. It was a movie that I let end too soon for reasons so insignificant that at this moment I couldn't even remember them.

I was so glad that of anybody that could be able to see me that it was her.

"So," she declared, getting my attention, "how does this work? Imagination or not, I don't want someone watching me sleep. Is there somewhere you can go?"

"Uhm. . . Yeah, I'll go my parents house," I lied.

I couldn't bear to even think about how they were handling things. If I saw it, I—

I wouldn't be able to take it.

**XX**

The next day, when I arrived at Skylar's house she had a letter opened on her desk. Hastily thrown together, it was only intended to pass along a message—a challenge. I expected her to relish the fact that someone sought her out to battle, but instead she threw it out. I hadn't noticed yesterday, but her trashcan was filled with similar letters.

"Popular?"

"Annoyed," she said, still hard at work. "You remember Ami, right? She's been sending me those challenges for days. Probably since the funeral, actually."

I remembered well about the rivalry between the two of them.

They were oil and water.

Ami was someone who attracted attention no matter what she did. Her hair was blond, styled differently all the time but if I remembered right it was most recently fashioned into long strands of bouncy curls. She had piercing blue eyes that almost was like looking at the sky. However, despite how great she sounded she was still oil in a sea of water.

A stubborn princess among the student body. Royalty among the common folk, someone whose word was as good as law to the average student. She never got in trouble, never was asked to participate in gym class, and never was challenged.

Aside from against Skylar.

"She thinks that'll probably help her finally beat me. As if," she scoffed.

"So you going to battle her?"

"Why should I? Just cause she couldn't travel around and I could she won't quit until she feels like she can beat me," she replied with a heavy sigh. "I don't have anything to prove to her. She was a bitch in high school and surprise surprise, she still is."

"Then why not knock her down a peg?" I smiled.

**XX**

"Man, I've been waiting for this battle!"

"I know, right?! Took them long enough!"

The atmosphere around the battlefield behind our high school felt tense. I could hardly believe the crowd that had gathered in such a short time from Skylar accepting the battle, each of them familiar as alumni of the same school though I wasn't that close to any of them.

I really shouldn't be surprised with Ami being who she was. Her confident glare and ever present smug smile the same as it had been through our school years, even as she stood staring down Skylar's choice for the battle. A sturdy empoleon, her strongest and most dependable pokemon that she had gotten when we briefly visited Sinnoh.

"I've been waiting for this day, you know!" Ami exclaimed from behind her own pokemon—ninetails. A pokemon that captured just as much attention as its trainer, a proud and noble creature through and through. "I'll win this time for sure!"

"You called me out here but you're using the same pokemon as always? Didn't you ever learn about type-advantages or do you just like to lose?" Skylar taunted.

"Hmph. Like I'd ever need any other pokemon than my Cynder," Ami replied.

_Empoleon's part steel-type so you're disadvantaged, too, Sky_, I noted.

As the two of them called their first attack's as cheers erupted from the crowd. It was overwhelming support for Ami as the two pokemon rushed at each other, Empoleon sluggishly reacting when ninetails enveloped itself in fire and shot forward like a bullet. A move that I recognized—flame charge, a useful move that increases speed as well as inflicting damage.

I had lost to it plenty of times against random trainers in my journey.

However, Skylar was better than me. Ninetails darted around to get behind Empoleon with flames spilling from its mouth when the water-type turned with water dripping from its beak like a leaky facet, as if it knew exactly what it was planning. Fire and water collided in steady streams that produced a thin layer of steam around them.

"I'm beating you today. This is the day," Ami declared confidently.

From what I could see of Skylar's expression through the cloud of steam that settled around them like a thick mist, she appeared as uncaring as ever about Ami's words. Almost as if she wasn't even listening as she focused exclusively on the battle in front of her.

"Empoleon—Hydro Pump!"

The struggle between their respective streams of fire and water that had been at a stalemate before was broken as the pokemon unleashed an even stronger surge of water that erased the flames and pushed back ninetails. With it's improved speed it raced around the battlefield launching a volley of fireballs that were all extinguished with a shot of water before they could land.

Skylar all the while appearing disinterested, which only seemed to peeve Ami more.

But, it turned out to be a feint.

Ninetails appeared from the mist with their fangs bared. Empoleon shielding itself with its fin as its enemy latched down, growls filling the air as fire burst from the wound until it could be shaken off. The crowd delighted at the development while Ami smiled—as if baring her own fangs.

_No._

I knew that look on her face.

_No, no, no!_

A face that said she was about to attack.

It was the same look she had whenever she had figured out how to get her way. Whenever she figured out the right thing to say to get the reaction she wanted—to inject venom into her victim's heart.

_Whatever you thought of! Please, don't say it! For the love of everything, don't say it!_

"Even when I challenge you so soon after that boy's death, you're still so strong and composed. Just how heartless are you? Or maybe I'm wrong and you were stringing him along the whole time," she struck.

"Wha—?!"

"I can see why you would, the boy followed you around like a lost child. He wouldn't get involved in anything, but would drop everything in his life to satisfy your every beck and call. I guess you just couldn't let him down gently, could you?"

_Shut up!_

She had spread venom in her blood like oil in the water.

"During our freshman year, he actually had a crush on me, too. It was easy to tell. I ignored him, he was just some nobody that didn't leave an impression on anyone, but if I'd known he was so reliable that you'd keep him around then maybe I should have given him the time of day." Ami laughed.

"Who's she talking about?" someone in the crowd asked.

"I don't know. I don't remember anyone in our school dying, did they?"

Somehow, even after I had died, Ami had found a way to make me feel low. The crowd around me had begun to talk about who they thought she was referring to but nobody remembered anything about me. It was expected, but somehow it still hurt.

It pissed me off.

It enraged me without anything I could do about it.

But. . .

Skylar had been the real target of her words and they had struck their mark. Ninetails had resumed the attack and while Empoleon was well trained to deflect or dodge as much as it could, the pokemon kept looking at its trainer for a command—but it wasn't coming. Skylar could only glare at Ami while digging her nails into her palms with enough force to make them bleed.

"Don't talk about him like that! He may not have been a perfect person, but he was my friend. My best friend. I could rely on him for anything and that meant the world to me!"

Ami smiled as if fueled by Skylar's hate. "Then shouldn't you be more torn up about it? If one of my closest friends passed I wouldn't even be leaving my room for a month, much less battling as if nothing happened only a few days after."

_You don't have to pretend to care about some dead loser_, she added.

"YOU BI—!"

A blinding white light emerged from the pocket of Skylar's jeans as a pokemon released itself at her provocation. I had never known any pokemon to actually do it from my knowledge, but I theorized it was always possible. Though, my relationship with her pokemon were all average so they wouldn't have responded so strongly.

A primate pokemon with blue markings around its eyes and a small fire on its tail rushed the field. I recognized it immediately as a monferno—my monferno.

Bulbasaur marked the start of my first journey.

Then, the pokemon I received abroad marked the beginning of my second.

"What's he doing?! Shouldn't he have been at her house?" I asked, noticing that the six pokeballs that contained her pokemon were fastened on her belt. So, mine must have been in her pocket. Why'd she bring them with her?

I buried my head in one of my palms with a grimace. "What's he doing out there?"

The two battler's were equally shocked as my most trusted partners rushed the field. Ami stepping back in shock while her ninetails stepped between them, ready to intercept. Skylar calling him back but he wasn't listening, growling as its arm glowed a bright white.

Ninetails prepared itself with fire spilling from its throat, but it dissipated when Monferno was yanked backwards by it's tail. Empoleon, upset that its fight was interrupted, threw the pokemon behind it without ever looking away from ninetails or Ami.

Monferno was surprised at first but managed to recover in the air, sliding along the ground beside Skylar on all fours as if ready to pounce again immediately. However, one look from Skylar gave it pause. It still looked pissed, but ultimately it scoffed and sat on the ground beside her.

Monferno hadn't been the only one to recover. "Seems that boy couldn't even train his pokemon correctly."

"I don't think someone that evolves their pokemon because dear old daddy can buy you a stone should be making observations about training," Skylar returned with a smile that I could read all too well.

_Thanks Monferno_.

It seems that thanks to my pokemon's intervention, she was able to collect herself again. I could take pride in that, I thought as a smile stretched across my face, when through the mist I saw Skylar mouthing something to herself.

Though, I couldn't make out what it was.

"Damn, she's right. Vulpix does evolve with a stone, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, I totally forgot about that. I thought since she had a fully evolved pokemon that she had to be a great trainer. So, then Skylar's the real deal. I've been backing the wrong person," someone laughed.

The crowd was turning against her and she knew it.

From this point forward, the battle went how I had expected it to go from the start. Everything that Ami tried to use was easily countered with what appeared to be little effort from Empoleon. All of which grated Ami's nerves as she clenched her jaw tightly.

Ami was grumbling to herself as the battle waged on—so I moved closer.

"I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her. I hate her."

Seems about right.

Ninetails slid across the field after the most recent jet of water dowsed it, turning most of the dirt they stood on into mud that threatened to swallow them up. It's once pristine fur was covered in filth and it appeared to be nearing exhaustion, but Ami was too focused on Skylar's empty expression.

"Don't you look down on me! Don't you dare! Let's see you handle this!"

Ami yelled while thrusting her hand forward, her pokemon spewing a stream of flame—this time not aiming at the pokemon she was fighting, but the trainer controlling it. It all seemed to happen in slow motion as I instinctively ran onto the battlefield, no one able to see me and no attacks able to touch me.

If I didn't reach her she'd be hurt, but if I did she'd still be hurt.

I prayed for someone to step in.

Anyone.

"STOP IT!"

Empoleon had caught on to the attack at the same time as most of the crowd did, but her bulky pokemon found itself slowed down too much trying to move through the mud to reach her in time. Skylar's own eyes were wide in surprise as the stream of fire reflected in her eyes, nearing her.

I wanted her to move—but she was a deerling caught in the headlights.

She had never expected an opponent to attack her.

"Damn it, move!"

Even though she could see and hear me, my words fell on deaf ears. I was running beside the flames that spilled out with my hand outstretched towards her, but she couldn't even turn to look at me. It was almost as if she were mesmerized up until the moment it was supposed to strike her and she reflexively slammed her eyes shut.

But no pain came.

My prayers had been answered, fittingly by my own pokemon. Skylar opened her eyes curious on why she wasn't hurt and her surprise matched mine as I saw Monferno intercept the attack with its arms crossed in front of its face, the attack strong enough to push it back even as it braced its legs as best it could into the mud.

Monferno always did get along well with her, so I should have figured. Though, the more surprising thing is how strong it seemed, it was always my best battler but it could never tank a hit as well I was witnessing. It was almost like a glass cannon.

When Monferno broke through the attack and it completely dissipated, I sighed in relief. I came to a stop in front of Monferno though it was glaring through me towards Ami, who was stunned. Skylar looked me in the eye and smile, muttering something under her breath again. The same thing she had mouthed earlier it looked like.

_You're always helping me, aren't you?_

I flashed a thumbs up. "You know it."

The crowd rushed the field soon after asking if she were okay and asking Ami what had happened. Skylar was shaken but assured everyone she was fine while another group had gathered around Ami who appeared dumbfounded now that the rush of the battle had faded.

As if she couldn't believe her own actions.

"It was an accident," she said tearfully. "I wasn't careful. The mud, the mist—we got, no—_I _got caught up in the heat of it. Lost in it. Then, lost the battle."

I was stunned.

She admitted it. Our very own stubborn princess, the school's royalty herself who never was in the wrong in the eyes of the student body and would never be held accountable—had declared herself as the loser.

Though, she couldn't see me, I put my hand on her shoulder and said, "You did good. There might be hope for you yet, Ami."

While she shuddered as if struck by a chilling breeze, I left.

**XX**

"Are you sure this is wise?"

"_Yes_. For the last time, Mom," Skylar said while stuffing the items she had gathered into her bag. It was worn from the last time she journeyed, showcasing the signs of her adventures like a badge of honor even as she fit all the items for her new one inside.

Potions. Rope. Food and water. Clothes. A tent. Everything that she needed for a basic journey as well as a few other tools to make things easier on her. The only thing left were the four pokeballs that contained my pokemon, the last time that I'd probably ever see them gathered in one place.

"I don't think you should be going on a journey until you've recovered from your grief."

"This _is_ the only way for me to recover," she replied.

I watched the whole exchange while lounging around lazily on her bed as I used to do whenever I came over. Waiting until her mother had given up and left the room before I asked her if she remembered our brief excursion to the Sinnoh region.

The beginning of the end for my time as a trainer.

"What kind of question is that? Of course I remember it," she said. "I'll never forget it as long as I live. It was probably both the best and worst decision of our lives to put the stress of trying to complete the gym challenge on hold and go see one of Professor Oak's friends. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason," I replied.

As if I could ever tarnish the memories she had of that trip with the drama I experienced on foreign soil. Kanto was my home and while it hadn't treated me as kindly on my journey as I had hoped—Sinnoh had plagued me like a horror.

The first domino to fall in the ending of my life.

"Now that you mention it, we were there for two weeks, right? I stayed and helped the Professor at the lab like we were supposed to with his other aides but you left randomly—"

"Don't remind me about that old coot and his staff," I interrupted.

"Alright, whatever. Anyway," Skylar declared while throwing her backpack over her shoulder. "Let's go."

**XX**

Since we both lived in Viridian City we had to pass through the forest to the north first. It wasn't a big city by any means, usually feeling like a giant suburban neighborhood until the houses slowly faded out in favor of dirt paths lined with trees.

"So, what is the first stop?"

"Well, that depends. I'm trying to find good homes for your pokemon first, so where did you capture them?"

I tapped my chin in thought. "I got Bulbasaur from Oak, Chimchar from Rowan, and then I caught the other two somewhere around Cerulean, I think."

"Alright, well it should take only a few days to get to where we can release half of them. As for the starters—"

"You keep them," I declared. "I mean, they like you. They always listened to you just as well as they did to me so they obviously trust you to lead them. You'll likely do even better than me and I couldn't think of anyone that would do a better job of it, ya know?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. You remember what the Professor said when he gave us our pokemon—they were raised in the lab to be a trainer's pokemon. If we put them in the wild, it'll be like abandoning them instead of returning them," I explained.

In fact, it had been a while since I had caught all of them.

"When I think about it, maybe you should keep all of them. If you want. I just feel guilty separating them, I guess."

"Umm—sure? Sounds good to me," she said, withdrawing her journal and crossing out the first line. "Then we can move onto the next thing a little sooner than I originally thought."

"Which is?"

"Secret." she beamed.

Together, we entered the forest just as we once had what felt like many years before. Laughing and bantering among ourselves as we always did as if nothing changed. It felt familiar and comfortable to us even if it was all wrong. I shouldn't be able to experience this and the thought almost made me feel guilty.

I died without being able to move on.

I had no right to enjoy myself now.

Not when everything we did together now would only make it harder on us both when I eventually do pass on for good. I was just having a really good dream beneath the forest canopy and we both knew—eventually I'd have to wake up.

* * *

**Authors Note: First official chapter is out! Just in time to be a somewhat early Christmas gift, so time to switch gears and turn my focus back to my other stories and see if I can't crank out a chapter for one of them by the new year! I'm hopeful, but all of them are still too far from being release ready to say if it's possible or not.**

**As a small additional gift, I'm kind of work shopping with myself on the idea of writing a parody story of shorts. Legit journey, battles, characters, but just a little cooky and everything sort of set to eleven. The parts of it I have figured out I feel strongly about so look forward to that soon as well!**

**Anyway, this chapter was fun! I hope you like it. Read, review, favorite, like, whatever you want to do. I hope to see you guys soon!**

**Until then, later!**


End file.
